IAG, parent of British Airways and Iberia, reported that premium traffic in January increased 2.7 percent year over year, ahead of the 0.3 percent growth in non-premium traffic. Measured in revenue passenger kilometers, the group's overall traffic was up 6.8 percent in domestic U.K. and Spanish markets, 5.5 percent in the rest of Europe and 1.2 percent on North American routes. By carrier, BA experienced traffic growth of 5.1 percent while Iberia's January traffic dropped 10.3 percent.

Over the past 12 years, Turkish Airlines has
increased its fleet size nearly sixfold from 55 aircraft to almost 300,
enabling it to fly “more countries than any other airline in the world.” BTN
transportation editor Michael B. Baker visited the carrier’s headquarters in
Istanbul, where a new airport slated to begin a phased opening in a few years
will give the carrier the capability to expand even further. Turkish Airlines
chief marketing officer Ahmet Olmustur
spoke about the airline’s growth plans, particularly in the U.S. corporate
segment, as well as upcoming technology and sales staff.

U.S. Bank is putting its money where its
technology is thriving. The bank has made a two-year, multimillion-dollar
investment to upgrade its Access Online commercial card management system and
mobile app. It also restructured earlier this year, switching from a
product-specific operations model to a customer-specific one. Mary Miklethun, head
of commercial card product and marketing for large market and public sector,
spoke about
those changes, tech investments and her newest responsibilities. An edited
transcript follows.

Cyril Kovarsky joined
Accor on April 1 as senior vice president of global sales after serving as senior vice president of corporate
sales for business services at Orange, a French multinational
telecommunications corporation. He spoke with BTN Group editorial director
David Meyer about his approach, including the fact that technology is driving
two Accor priorities: facilitating communication between sales and
property-level employees and a digital meeting-planning tool.

Despite protests from the Big Three U.S.
carriers, Emirates plans to add flights to established U.S. routes and open a
new one to Orlando later this year. In an interview with BTN
transportation editor Michael B. Baker, Emirates vice president of U.S. sales
Matthias Schmid said the United States remains the carrier's “key strategic
growth market” and that added capacity enables Emirates to make a stronger play
for American corporate business large and small. An edited transcript of the
interview follows.

Roundtable: Seeing Travel Management From A Multinational Perspective
Three multinational travel buyers discussed in a conference call with BTN editorial director David Meyer particulars of global management, including travel management company structures, language barriers and the effects of lo